Longtime Tuscaloosa Academy track coach dies

Thursday

Dec 31, 2009 at 12:01 AM

When the Tuscaloosa Academy football team played at home, Don McDaniel served as the public address announcer while John Rushing sat beside him to operate the clock. Rushing said walking up to the pressbox won’t be the same next fall.

By Andrew CarrollSports Writer

TUSCALOOSA | When the Tuscaloosa Academy football team played at home, Don McDaniel served as the public address announcer while John Rushing sat beside him to operate the clock. Rushing said walking up to the pressbox won’t be the same next fall.McDaniel, longtime head coach for the school’s track and cross country programs, died Wednesday. The notice from Heritage Chapel Funeral Home said McDaniel, 69, passed away at his home in Vance.“I’ll miss him a lot,” said Rushing, the school’s head baseball coach and director of athletics. “Coach Mac and I had such a good relationship. He was definitely a confidant. I could always go sit in his office and bounce things off of him to see what he thought. I’m going to miss him a lot.“It was a pleasure to be able to work with him. I was a younger guy coming in to be his AD, and he helped me tremendously throughout the process of starting and all the way up. To put it in Coach Mac’s words, ‘I’ll do whatever I can to help you.’”Last spring the Tuscaloosa Academy boys track team won the AISA title with 102 points, and the girls placed third with 73. Rushing said he thought so much of McDaniel that he allowed a few of his starting baseball players to make the trip to Selma for the track meet, even though Rushing’s squad was preparing to enter the AISA playoffs.Garrett McGiffert, who graduated from Tuscaloosa Academy in May, was a captain for the boys track team since his sophomore year. McGiffert competed in the high jump, 2-mile relay, mile relay and the 800 and 400 races.McGiffert, a freshman at Furman University, said he was a fifth-grader when he started running for McDaniel. McGiffert’s sister, Kendall, also ran for McDaniel.“I was shocked personally because he always seemed to be so vibrant,” McGiffert said. “He was always upbeat. I thought he had more life to live.”McGiffert said he enjoyed dropping into McDaniel’s office and just chatting with a friend.“Probably more than anything was the fact that he was never unselfish at all,” McGiffert said. “At my school, track was not necessarily overlooked, but we definitely had to find people to come run. Coach Mac never complained that the track team was down or anything like that. He worked with what he got and won more state championships than any coach I’ve ever seen. He joked about how we were going to win another one soon, and we did it my senior year. That meant all the world to me.“He was a humble man who did what he did and enjoyed it. He didn’t ask for anything more, and he gave all he could.”McGiffert played basketball and football at Tuscaloosa Academy. He recalled that would offer a prayer at the home football games.“He would always end it the same way,” McGiffert said. “He would say, ‘Pray for a heart that never hardens, a temper that never tires and a touch that never hurts.’”Rushing said McDaniel’s boys and girls cross country teams swept the AISA titles in October.Ashley Boyd wrote in the June 16 edition of The Tuscaloosa News that McDaniel had a heart attack while coaching football in 1993. The incident motivated McDaniel to live a healthier lifestyle, and he decided to start the school’s cross country program.“What I seek is to help my students develop and accomplish things that they thought they couldn’t do but can,” McDaniel said in the article. “I still have an enthusiasm for what I do. I love to get up and come to work to coach my kids.”“I think he just loves helping and working with kids,” McDaniel’s son, Brian, said in the article. “He loves working and teaching and passing along skills.”McDaniel taught history and physical education at Tuscaloosa Academy and even drove a bus. Wayne Brantley, dean of students and head football coach, said his children were devastated by the news of McDaniel’s death.“He was a very special man to a lot of people, from the people who cleaned up to the cafeteria ladies to all the kids and faculty in the school,” Brantley said. “He had an impact on everybody. He’ll be greatly missed.”Brantley said McDaniel knew the names of every Tuscaloosa Academy student.“He made them all feel special because he had such a great personality,” Brantley said. “He would tease with them a little bit, but he could be serious when he needed to be. All the kids loved him, and he loved all of them. He treated them all like they were important and like they had a place in the school.”Brantley recalled that he was living in Atlanta when he got the job to coach the Tuscaloosa Academy football team. McDaniel sent him an e-mail and offered to adjust the track schedule so Brantley could conduct spring drills.“Taking a new job in a new town where I didn’t know anybody, it meant a lot to me,” Brantley said. “One thing I remember about the e-mail is that he said, ‘I’ll do anything I can to help you.’”

Reach Andrew Carroll at andrew.carroll@tuscaloosanews.com or at 205-722-0223.